The present invention is directed to a handling system configured for use with a receptacle, such as a pan. In its preferred embodiment, the present invention is directed to a handle for a pan which is used with a steam table or similar food service arrangement, and which may be nestably stacked for storage.
Food service arrangements, such as steam tables, impose specific requirements upon the design of pans for use therewith. Steam tables generally are constructed with a tank beneath a serving surface. Apertures are located in the serving surface, which apertures provide access to wells within the tank. In operation, steam or hot water flood the tank and come in contact with pans which are nestingly received within the apertures. It is important that there be a good seating of the pans within the apertures, both to preclude the escape of steam from the tank (a burn hazard and an inefficient loss of heat) and to preclude incursions of materials which may be spilled on the serving surface. Incursions of spilled materials into the tank can require draining and cleaning of the tank, a time-consuming and costly activity.
The advantages of handles on pans have long been recognized, especially for pans which may contain a significant mass of hot food. Handles may aid in handling such pans generally, and especially aid placement of such pans into an aperture of a steam table or the like.
Some handling systems have included separable handle apparatuses for use in lifting steam table food pans, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,179,287 to Rickmeier, Jr., for "Steam Table Food Transfer Pan Assemblages". While certain advantages in handling steam table food pans are realized by Rickmeier's separable handle devices, there are problems with such a design. First, positive contact between the handle and the pan depends upon many factors (e.g., proper location of the handle device with respect to the pan, and ensuring no jostling or other disruption upsets the pan from contact with the handle). A need for separate storage of the handles and the possibility of loss of the separate handle apparatuses disrupting operation in a busy food service atmosphere are inherent shortcomings in such a separable handle design.
Rotatable handles for various receptacles are known in the art, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,103,169 to Beam for "Combined Dish Drainer, Steamer, Roaster or Baking Pan"; and in U.S. Pat. No. 1,219,969 to Lowe for "Basket".
Rotatable handles located atop a receptacle such as are disclosed in Lowe generally aid in handling the receptacle. However, such handles are not retractable and therefore require special covers to accommodate them or unstably accommodate standard covers. Moreover, such non-retractable handles generally are difficult to clean when food material (e.g., from a spill) is baked onto the handle and its pivot assemblies.
Rotatable handles located on a wall of a receptacle, such as are disclosed in Beam, are inaccessible to a user when the receptacle is installed in a steam table. Further, there is generally very little space available intermediate a receptacle wall and the wall of the steam table well when a receptacle is installed. Rotatable handles as disclosed by Beam have a tendency to interfere with insertion and removal of receptacles with steam tables by further limiting that inter-wall clearance. Thus, handles of the Beam design actually hinder receptacle handling rather than improve such handling.
Attempts have been made to provide retractable handle assemblies, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,167,808 to Lindenberg et al. for "Handle Support for a Storage Battery Container". The Lindenberg disclosure requires a specific mounting orientation of the handle with respect to its associated container in order to ensure the handle remains close to the wall of the container. Such an orientation is necessary to accommodate the limited inter-wall clearance available between a pan and a wall of a steam table well. Moreover, the Lindenberg design would not limit steam leaks through the guide members in its retracted position. Further, it is unforgiving in its placement, requiring that the handle virtually abut the pan wall to accommodate use of pans employing the Lindenberg device in steam table operations or for nested stacking.
The desirability (for the Lindenberg design) of placing the guide holes for the handle close to the receptacle wall creates certain tooling problems in the manufacture of such pans on a production scale. Specifically, the walls of such receptacles are generally extruded or drawn and, therefore, are not reliably true in their positioning with respect to the flange. The walls are also not reliably true in their departure angle from the flange. As a result, one must offset the guide holes some distance from the wall in order that the wall will not be deformed during the creation of the guide holes, for example, by drilling or punching. Thus there is a predetermined gap necessarily established between the handle and the receptacle wall. Of course, it is desirable that the handle abut the wall of the receptacle when the handle is retracted in order to best accommodate the limited inter-wall clearance between the receptacle and the steam table well.
Nested stacking is accommodated by the rotatable handle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,219,969 to Lowe (referred to above) by rotating the handle to within the well of the receptacle, thereby providing a shelf upon which a next-higher stacked receptacle may rest. However, with the Lowe device the length of the handle determines the depth of penetration of a nesting receptacle and too high a stack of such receptacles is an undesirable, unstable arrangement.
A retractable handle assembly intended for use with a receptacle in steam table operations is disclosed in German Design Patent No. 79 30 626, issued to Rieber Works for "Warm Food Storage Container". The Rieber apparatus discloses a handle assembly which is similar to the Lindenberg handle assembly. Specifically, the Rieber disclosure involves a straight flat bail with a rounded upper handle portion positioned sufficiently close to the wall of a receptacle to enable the bail to retract intermediate the receptacle wall and the wall of the steam table well. However, the upper handle portion of the Rieber device does not approximate the lip of the container with which it is associated, and therefore it requires either a special cover, which contacts the receptacle inside the handle locations (as shown in FIG. 1 of Rieber), or a lid which is specially contoured to fit in a stable manner over the handle in its retracted orientation. Further, the Rieber device suffers from the same shortcoming of the Lindenberg device in that the Rieber device requires that it be located as close as possible to the wall of the receptacle in order to clear the wall of the steam table well, but the handle does not abut the receptacle wall.
Examples of handles configured for use with a nested container are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,092 to Jones for "Nestable Container"; and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,831 to Locatelli for "Handle Particularly for Wire Baskets". The Jones device includes a carrying handle connected with the wall of the receptacle by a resilient hinge which permits the handle position to be displaceable between a carrying configuration in which the handle extends outwardly from the wall and a nesting configuration in which the handle lies adjacent the exterior of the wall. The Jones device would in no way facilitate the lifting of a receptacle from a steam table well since the handle would be inaccessible below the steam table surface when the receptacle is seated within the well. In fact, the resiliency of the handle would likely interfere with extraction of the receptacle from the steam table well since the handle would hang up in the steam table well as the pan is lifted upward. In any event, the Jones handle would not be accessible for grasping by a user until the pan was nearly fully removed from the steam table well.
Locatelli discloses a handle for a wire basket, which handle is rotatable from a carrying orientation to a stacking orientation to accommodate nestable stacking of similar wire baskets. In such a stacked arrangement, upper baskets in the stack rest upon a leg of the handle of the next lower basket. According to Locatelli, an advantage of his design is that a lower basket in a stack may be filled while stacking baskets above. The object of stacking receptacles for storage (as opposed to Locatelli's stacking for filled stowage) is to reduce storage requirements (i.e., the stacking height). That is, the stacking height of pans which are stacked for storage is desirously as low as possible to accommodate the maximum number of receptacles in a given storage area while also ensuring maximum stability for a stack of receptacles.
Accordingly, there is a need for a handling assembly for use with a receptacle used in a steam table well, which handling assembly is retractable without significantly degrading steam table efficiency or operations, accommodates standard receptacle lids, is easily accessible for use in removing the receptacle from the steam table well or inserting the receptacle in the steam table well, and which accommodates nested stacking for storage.